First time messing around with game, help?

Siba · #1 March 27th, 2006, 03:24 AM

I've been trying to make a new ship out of stats and xfiles already in the game. More specifically, I'm trying to get the fazrah cruiser model, add a few slots and tweak other stats, then make it purchasable at a terran shipyard.

I can't seem to do this though.
I've made copies of the xfiles, portraits etc, pointed the spaceobjects xfiles and main purchase ships player txts to the new xfiles and portraits, and then used slot modder to add a few slots.

When I make a new game or load an old one, the ship never shows up. What could I be doing wrong?

I reordered the configuration slots to go weapon > shields > armor > inner hull > outer hull, just like the default ships order. However, I still can't get the ship to show up. As far as I know, all of the pointers are correct to the different files. I've also made alterations to the firing arcs, if that makes a difference.

Can anyone tell me what I'm doing wrong?

Siba · #2 March 27th, 2006, 03:27 AM

I'll post the ship stats here as an attachment (view top of post)

Campeador · #3 March 28th, 2006, 01:57 AM

Maybe you need an entry on the 'Main_Enemies.txt', Im not sure at the moment. You also have 8 light weapons and 6 heavy weapons yet only 10 firing points, I do not remember if this can cause an issue. For sure you will have a problem with your firing point #3 and #4 since all your weapon arcs are 315,45 on your layout page, yet your firing arcs # 3 and #4 are diferent on your 'SpaceObjects_XFiles.txt'. They should be exactly the same, if not you may have a crash on the space port. At least start fixing that to see if that fix the problem.

Suicide Junkie · #4 March 28th, 2006, 05:27 AM

I plugged that stuff you attached into a test game, and once I'd changed the BMPs to use the Terran destroyer and the xfile to use the battleship (since I don't have your model or layoutpics) it worked just fine for me.

Some issues:
- Odd firing arcs on the new cross-beam hardpoints. The slots say they're pointing back and to the left.
- Reversed costs. You can buy the ship for $50k, and sell it back to the same guy for $750k
- Insane regen. The crew breed faster than they choke in space, so you don't need lifesupport.

bearclaw · #5 March 28th, 2006, 02:21 PM

Quote:

Suicide Junkie said:
The crew breed faster than they choke in space, so you don't need lifesupport.

SJ, I just love your choice of words

Very visual.

Have you added your new ship to the Ship Purchase file (can't recall the name of the file at the moment.)

Suicide Junkie · #6 March 28th, 2006, 07:34 PM

Attached are the files I changed.

Make a copy of the Homefront campaign and paste them in.

Siba · #7 April 2nd, 2006, 07:06 PM

Quote:

Suicide Junkie said:
I plugged that stuff you attached into a test game, and once I'd changed the BMPs to use the Terran destroyer and the xfile to use the battleship (since I don't have your model or layoutpics) it worked just fine for me.

Some issues:
- Odd firing arcs on the new cross-beam hardpoints. The slots say they're pointing back and to the left.
- Reversed costs. You can buy the ship for $50k, and sell it back to the same guy for $750k
- Insane regen. The crew breed faster than they choke in space, so you don't need lifesupport.

One of my main issues was trying to get the ship to look like the Fazrah Cruiser using the files already in the game.
the Odd firing arcs are probably the result of me copying and pasting incorrectly heh.
I noticed that the Hull slots I added myself don't work. Can't drag anything onto them.
The weird costs were to make sure i could buy the ship without having to do anything once i started a new game, didnt want to do anything to starting ships
the crew regen is my attempt to counter psychic weapons which scale up to extremely quick kills at the later levels, because ship crew size doesn't get any larger and there is nothing to resist psychic flailers...once you reach a high enough level in the game those things can kill most ships in a single hit.
with the weird cost of the ship i noticed something crazy. the game seems to be giving you the trade in value of the NEW ship that you just bought. say I have a terran destroyer worth 150k trade in. When I buy the Pacifica that you provided, the game gives me about 700k cash. It seems like the game adds the trade in value for the ship I am buying, then subtracts the cost of the new ship also. heh

Suicide Junkie · #8 April 2nd, 2006, 09:19 PM

Did you use "fazrah_cruiser1.X"
instead of "fazrah_cruiser.X"?
The 1 is important.

Most probable reason is that you made your slots with a typo in the slot type. Thus making them a custom slot, and only components with a similarily typoed "Placement Locations" entry can be placed in them.

Overall, I suggest you use the P&Nism mod as a base rather than stock

Tons and tons of small things better.
For example, crew quarters adding to crew capacity (and hull repair), and increasing the lifesupport requirements of the ship